NYCHA is Ready for the Hurricane Season and Much More
Some clouds bring storms but NYCHA’s cloud brings safety from the storm—thanks to the Emergency Response Reporting System developed by IT Computer Specialists Ned Epstein and Girish Nori, and Computer Services Manager Rajat Lala.
Following Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy one year later, Mr. Epstein worked on the application development for the emergency response system. The program helps NYCHA communicate with residents not just for weather emergencies but also for service interruptions, outages, major renovations and other events.
Mr. Epstein originally developed the system as an internal data warehouse with information on the composition, contact numbers and special needs of every NYCHA household. Fol-lowing Hurricane Sandy, Mr. Nori adapted the internal database in 2014 to reside externally on Oracle Cloud Services, where it could be protected from local electrical outages or other interruptions— making the Emergency Response Reporting System NYCHA’s first “cloud” application. The system is available not only on personal computers but also on mobile devices. “It’s an ongoing process to update the cloud application with the latest features so that we can be prepared for any emergency,” Mr. Nori said. The system has been used to contact residents for such diverse events as the Pomonok Houses gas outage and the Ebola response in 2014, and the Juno Winter Storm and the heating outage at Sheepshead Bay/Nostrand Houses earlier this year.
Computer Systems Manager Rajat Lala, project manager for the team, helped design both the internal and external computer programs, while overseeing their development. “We are confident that with this system we can collect accurate data and organize information to help evacuate residents, know where they have been relocated, track the status of building outages, and perform many related functions,“ he said.
“This secure and constantly updated database is a vital tool at our disposal to help us deal with many types of emergencies that impact our residents and our buildings,” said Vice President for Research and Management Anne-Marie Flatley, who originally requested and conceptualized the application. “The IT team did a great job of providing a resource that helps NYCHA respond fast and efficiently to many kinds of situations.”
Thanks to enterprising employees, NYCHA is ready for the 2015 hurricane season that began June 1 and much more.
